NCJ Number
184595
Date Published
1998
Length
362 pages
Annotation
This volume reviews literature from communication, law, sociology, and political science regarding the ways that the mass media cover the courts, including the United States Supreme Court, other appellate courts, criminal courts, civil litigation, and judicial selection.
Abstract
The text also presents and analyzes news stories to enable students to learn how to read reporting on the courts critically. The introduction defines two contrasting perspectives on court coverage. The inside-out perspective formulates assumptions commonly used by defenders of law or journalism, whereas the more skeptical outside-in perspective appears more often in literature critical of law or journalism. The discussion argues that both these perspectives are useful, independently and together, to understand how mass media cover courts and that these perspectives often complement each other. The analysis concludes that too much of the professional self-images of adjudicators and journalists is assumed or accepted and that it is useful to examine features of court coverage from multiple viewpoints. Tables, index, chapter reference notes, and approximately 250 references